


rise triumphant over all

by ernestdummkompf (JehanFerres)



Series: once upon a different life [2]
Category: Gilbert & Sullivan & Related Fandoms, Original Work, The Mikado - Sullivan/Gilbert
Genre: Canon Gay Relationship, F/F, F/M, M/M, Nonbinary Character, Operas, Theatre, exists in probably the same universe as beneath my lungs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 15:53:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9278774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JehanFerres/pseuds/ernestdummkompf
Summary: Three quarters of an hour wasn’t too early to turn up to the first rehearsal with a new company, right? In most companies that Jamie had been in, there would already be a few people there for rehearsal early, warming up or running through new things, or, indeed, old things that they felt that they needed to go through. Especially given that they had two rehearsals before the auditions for Mikado, it struck him that he would probably have company.





	

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to a SECOND piece of original writing me your humble narrator, me. this may or may not exist in the same universe as _beneath my lungs_ , but they both come from roughly the same idea, hence why both are part of the same series.
> 
> for a little context, this came from a joke i made with a friend about how pooh-bah would probably be a traditionalist, and kinda got wildly out of my control until i ended up writing it, so i owe the existence of this to him.
> 
> characters in this may be based on real people who i have either encountered, Heard About or worked with on the shows that i have done, but, then again (for the sake of my continued ability to be in gilbert and sullivan), they may also not. the only exception is the un-named adjudicator, who people involved in the british gilbert and sullivan scene will probably recognise.
> 
> for the curious: will's boyfriend's name indeed IS pronounced to rhyme with "strafe", as in "ralph rackstraw". it was actually a joke from the friend who gave me the idea for this but it kind of stuck and it's funny. so there you have it.

Three quarters of an hour wasn’t too early to turn up to the first rehearsal with a new company, right? In most companies that Jamie had been in, there would already be a few people there for rehearsal early, warming up or running through new things, or, indeed, old things that they felt that they needed to go through. Especially given that they had two rehearsals before the auditions for Mikado, it struck him that he would probably have company.

The theatre was open. He gave his name to the woman on the desk, who looked genuinely rather shocked. It would probably be best to clarify, then. “Yeah, I’m their new Producer!”

“Oh, yes, Jenny retired, didn’t she?” The woman on the desk came out from the office to show Jamie around the place, since she had nothing else to do. It would be dead for another three quarters of an hour, given the company’s track record for punctuality. “I remember her saying she was going to. I just assumed that she was going to promote John to her old job.”

“No, they actually interviewed me and asked for some recordings of old shows I’d directed and been in,” Jamie explained. “I used to run and produce two university companies, but I just graduated, so I thought I’d try my hand at producing a proper company, and it just so happened that Solent were looking for somebody just as I graduated!”

“Oh, did you study at Southampon, then?” the woman - Michelle, according to her badge - asked. “Half of Solent did too, it’s how they all ended up here.”

“Yes! I studied English and Music. I produced for a traditional Grand Opera company, and I also produced the Gilbert and Sullivan society.”

“Well, only two of Solent are here now,” Michelle said, “and there isn’t really a particularly interesting tour I can give you. All there really is is backstage, where you’ve been, and the theatre. There are three rehearsal rooms, though - four, if you count the theatre.”

“Yeah, I had a vague tour when I got interviewed to produce. We’re doing the auditions in the theatre, correct?”

“Completely correct,” Michelle said. “Terrify ‘em as much as you can,” she joked, pushing open the door to the theatre.

Jamie was a little surprised to realise that it was completely empty, apart from one man sat on a chair next to the stage. Jamie frowned. “Uh… hi?” he said. His voice echoed pleasingly around the empty theatre.

“Hello!” A head poked around the curtain, followed by the rest of a tall, skinny young red-headed man. He was wearing jeans, a red button-up shirt, a tie, and an undone waistcoat, which were under an old-looking, paint-spattered apron. “Sorry if we’re in the way, mate, I can move everything if you need.”

“Uh… are you with Southampton Solent Gilbert and Sullivan society…?” Jamie sounded more terrified than he had intended, and cleared his throat. “Because I’m their new producer.”

“Oh!” The redhead, who had been taking his apron off and threatening his elderly friend with it, suddenly seemed to perk up. He hopped off the stage. “Nice to meet you, then! I’m Will, I’m actually a performer with the company but I also make all the sets.” He indicated the other man on the stage, who had started to come down the stairs to join Will and Jamie. “And that’s John. I don’t know what he’s doing here.”

“Well, that makes two of us.” John shook hands, very formally, with Jamie. “I caught the new role, but not your name,” he said, with considerable subtlety.

“Oh, sorry.” Jamie grinned. “I’m Jamie! As I said, I’m here to produce the Mikado.”

“Then maybe you can give me some freedom, at last, from the role of Pooh-Bah!” John said, with false melodrama.

Will laughed and hopped, surprisingly athletically, back up onto the stage. “I’m auditioning for him! And Pish-Tush, because everybody needs a back-up.”

“Well, I wish you luck. I’ve only gone for the Mikado,” John said, turning to regard Will properly. “Anything for a quiet life, free of either So Please You Sir or Young Man, Despair.”

“Of course, of course.” Will grinned. “Should I dye my hair, do you think?” he said.

“I fear it may well be advisable.” John had gone to sit on one of the normal seats in the theatre. Jamie followed him over.

“So, when can we expect the rest of the company to get here?” he asked.

“Well, I think Alex and Ellie are walking from college, so we can expect them imminently, unless they stop to get food en route, which is somewhat likely. Anything for Alex to avoid her-”

“Their,” Will said, from the stage, where he was measuring something. Jamie didn’t know what it was, but he assumed it to be of vital importance.

“Apologies - our Alex prefers to be referred to as they, as opposed to the more traditional she,” John explained. “I don’t pretend to understand what the purpose of it is, but you don’t need to understand something to respect it.” John chuckled warmly. “Interesting, that’s the very state of many Gilbert and Sullivan companies. Regardless, call Alex they when referring to them.”

“Anyway, you were saying that Alex needs to avoid something?” Jamie’s brow furrowed.

“Oh, yes,” John said, seeming happy to be put back onto his train of thought. “Alex and their mother do not get on famously. As a result, they and Ellie walk to the theatre together, and usually get food together on their way to rehearsal.”

“They aren’t lax with timekeeping, though!” Will piped up from the stage. “They’ll be the first here after us, trust me.”

“Yes, and I’m only this hideously early because somebody can’t drive.”

“Carbon dioxide emissions,” Will commented from the stage.

“I was more thinking of the absolute existential terror that you experienced the first and only time you were behind the wheel of a car, but whatever helps you sleep at night,” John said, with the barest hint of a smirk. Will had gone every bit as red as his hair.

“So, Jamie, how familiar are you with Gilbert and Sullivan?” John asked. It was in a much more conversational tone, Jamie noted thankfully, than the tone in which he had been asked this at his interview. “I would assume that you have at least a modicum of knowledge, but you can never be sure.”

“I’m a big fan, actually!” Jamie said. “I produced the company at Southampton University for two years, which was four shows. And I’ve played a few characters with other companies.”

“Who have you played?” He seemed to have Will’s undivided attention now, seeing that stopped doing whatever he had been doing on the stage and come down to sit with Jamie and John.

“I was Marco, notably. That was fun. And I played Leonard Meryll with the University company, actually, but that was only because Fairfax had to drop out, and Leonard got promoted. He’s hardly on, so it was the obvious course of action,” Jamie said. “Plus we did a concert Iolanthe once, and I was Tolloller.”

“Man, if I was a tenor, I would absolutely love to play Tolloller. Or Fairfax. Most of the other tenors I’m neither here nor there on, but Fairfax is such a dreadful person, and Tolloller is just… hilarious.” Will grinned, and then seemed to realise that his mouth had run away with him. “Sorry. I don’t really get to talk all that much about Gilbert and Sullivan… anywhere, really,” he laughed. “Alex and Ellie are the biggest fans I know,” he explained. “John doesn’t actually like Gilbert and Sullivan so much.”

“I would much rather be playing Osmin.”

“Who wouldn’t?” Jamie agreed.

“And I’m a PhD candidate, doing particle physics. Very abstract, very un-Gilbertian.”

“And finally, his partner cannot stand Gilbert and Sullivan.”

“No.” Will glanced briefly at Jamie, before continuing. “His latest argument isn’t even one that I can fault him on, I’m furious.”

“Goodness.” John raised his eyebrows.

“Yes. He pointed out that it’s all so samey at the Festival, because I had the cheek to drag him to three different productions of Pirates.”

“And were they samey?” John said, in the tone of somebody who already knew the answer.

Will sighed and tipped his head back. “You know the gag with Frederick going all… y’know, Elvis, during his song?”

“Yes.”

“Every time. Every damn time.”

John burst out laughing.

“That isn’t even the worst of it!” Will was laughing too now. “Right, I timed how long each Frederick paused before singing the last ornament after the Elvis gag. Exactly the same each time; Ralph caught on after the second time and he hasn’t stopped laughing since.”

“Ouch,” Jamie said, although he was laughing too. “Like, I think it’s funny… the first few times. But then it gets less funny.”

“Humour and how many times I’ve seen the same joke are inversely proportional,” Will agreed. “Also… good Lord, the adjudications. Like, I talked to the guy after the last show and he was lovely and he had so many good things to say but it was mostly just ‘this isn’t the traditional way of doing things and I, personally, dislike this’.”

“Ah, yes. White hair, slight Northern accent, white dinner suit?” Jamie asked.

“The very same!” Will looked amazed. “Like, he made some great points about what is and isn’t funny, but just…let people do things that are funny, rather than traditional.”

“You’ll go far, young man,” John said. “All the way to musical theatre, they like originality there. Or so I’ve heard.”

“Yeah,” Jamie agreed.

There was some chattering in the hallway, and two people that Jamie assumed to be Alex and Ellie walked in. Will immediately jumped up to give both of them a hug. “We have a new producer, by the way!” he said, once Ellie had freed him. “So who knows, we may, in the distant future, see an entire idea,” he joked.

“Yes!” John moved up so that Ellie and Alex could sit down. “Lady and Alex, this is Jamie. Alex, he has been forewarned.” John winked. Alex cracked up laughing, although Jamie wasn’t quite sure if it was at the forewarning or the concept of ‘lady and Alex’. “So, is your mother auditioning?” John asked.

“Yeah, she’s going for Yum-Yum.” Alex didn’t seem as though they were in the least bit interested in the show, or the world of Gilbert and Sullivan. “I’m auditioning too. For Pitti-Sing and Peep-Bo, because I know what my voice type is.”

“And you, Ellie?” Will asked. He had gone around to show Ellie something on an iPad. “Or are you just going to be in the chorus again?”

“She,” Alex said, with a tone of abject pride, “has been persuaded into auditioning for the role of Yum-Yum, by my own self.”

“Do you know of anybody auditioning for Nanki-Poo?”

“Ah, that could present a problem.” John and Will both made faces. “I haven’t heard of anybody,” John went on, before casting a look at Jamie, who shook his head.

“Honestly, I don’t think you’ll do all that much directing,” Ellie joked. “If it’s anything like I imagine it will be, then they’ll be just doing exactly what they did the last few times.”

“It’s only a role in name,” Alex agreed, pushing their hair back off their face and tying it up. “You will probably be very bored if you aren’t singing, even just with the chorus.”

The door opened again, and Alex sunk down in their seat, groaning. Ellie smiled and waved at a tall woman who must have been about John’s age, if not older, who had just arrived. “Hi Lisa!”

“Hi Eleanor!” Somehow, even though she was dressed very modestly, Lisa projected an air of being larger than life. “So, has Alexandra managed to persuade you to audition?” she asked, in a tone which wasn’t unkind, but was slightly unconvinced. Alex went purple.

“Yes, actually!” Ellie grinned. “I’m gonna go for Yum-Yum. I don’t think I’ll get it, since it’s my first time auditioning-”

“And she is a big part,” Lisa agreed, sitting down beside Ellie. “But it’ll be good experience for when you find a better company, love.”

Keen to save herself from further conversation with Lisa, Ellie gestured to Jamie, who had just been considering making his escape. “Oh, also, this is Jamie,” she said. “He’s producing this year.”

“And hopefully after this year, if you lot like me enough.” Jamie grinned.

“So, James,” Lisa said, smiling. Jamie frowned, but assumed that it was just her thing to call everybody by the fullest extrapolation of their name, no matter how long it had been since somebody last addressed them as such. “Have you ever directed the Mikado before? Or even been in it?” she asked.

“No, actually,” Jamie said, in what he hoped to be a pleasant tone. “I’ve seen it what possibly amounts to an infinite number of times, but I’ve never actually been in it or produced it. I’ve only actually played Marco and Leonard, but I’ve produced Sorcerer, Ida, Pinafore and Patience.”

“And he’s sung Tolloller in a concert version,” Will piped up, before getting up to go back to the stage.

“That’s some impressive credits,” Lisa said agreeably.

“I’m pretty pleased with it, yeah,” Jamie agreed, albeit modestly.

In the time during which they had been speaking, two very harried-looking young men had arrived. They gave a cursory wave to the gathered company, and then went over the the orchestra pit and started getting set up. Jamie saw an escape route from a conversation he wasn’t keen to have. “Are they the accompanist and MD?” he asked.

“They are, yes,” Lisa said.

“Then I should probably go and introduce myself to them,” he said. Lisa turned her attention to Alex, who had surpassed purple. “Oh, Alex, you were saying you wanted to go over the notes for the audition piece and some of the lib, right?” he said.

Alex briefly looked confused, but then nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been trying to get So Please You Sir through my head all week but I just can’t,” they said, obviously lying.

“Well, it looks like they’re talking, so I can go over the lib with you while we wait, if you like?” Jamie suggested.

As soon as they were out of Lisa’s not-inconsiderable earshot, Alex cracked up laughing again. “Thank you so much,” they said, sounding genuinely relieved, making a show of looking at their libretto. Jamie did the same. “I was so worried that you were going to abandon me there.”

“Would I?” Jamie asked, laughing and waving up at Will, who was trying to get the lighting technician to triangulate some spotlights on him. By the looks of it, this mostly involved waving his arms.

Fortunately for Jamie, both the musical director and the accompanist seemed to know who he was. They also both seemed to know why Alex was over there, so Robert, the accompanist, made a show of “helping” Alex work on their harmony line, which, Jamie noted, they knew absolutely perfectly.

The Musical Director, who had graduated a few years prior from the same university as Jamie and who was called Steven, was probably the most helpful musical director that Jamie had ever encountered. Not that he had ever encountered any particularly unhelpful Musical Directors, obviously. Steven was just particularly good.

“So, is there anything that the outgoing producer didn’t tell me?” Jamie asked, sounding a little suspicious. Alex and Robert had given up the pretense of running through harmony and were just chatting. “Because you… weren’t even at my interview, and like. That seemed remiss.”

“It was remiss,” Steven said, taking off his glasses and polishing them. “In all honesty, you’ve seen just about everything. Nobody wants to play the male lead…” He lowered his voice. “Alex’s mother is not a soprano but I can’t think of how to tell her.”

Alex had joined them again. “Cast her as Katisha? That’d get it across,” they suggested.

Steven laughed and put his arm across their shoulders. “Believe me, I’m so tempted, but she would throw a veritable fit.”

“And there’s the more immediate problem of Nanki-Poo,” Robert pointed out. “We would, hypothetically, be fine without Lisa, especially if we have Ellie. We won’t be fine without Nanki-Poo.”

Steven made a face, and then looked at Jamie. “So, do you sing, at all…?” he asked. “Because like… I wouldn’t usually ask this but. Look around you.”

“Just… look around you,” Alex said.

Steven looked briefly impressed that Alex had understood his reference to a particularly obscure show from well before their time, but then went back to looking around him. “If you don’t, who will? We’re both having to sing tenor as it is, and some of the altos are singing tenor.”

“I mean… I am a tenor,” Jamie said, and then continued, immediately. “But I feel like it was be presumptuous.”

“Usually,” Will said, swinging down into the pit from the stage and making everybody jump, “I would agree with you, mate. But in this case either be presumptuous or have no show, and everybody here would probably forgive you the presumption.”

“Behold. Casting before the auditions,” Steven said, putting his hands over Alex’s ears. Will put his hands over his own ears, to save Robert the trouble.


End file.
